Being asked to develop an original idea on the spot and having your mind go blank is never a pleasant feeling. It’s frustrating when you know you have enhancing and productive thoughts, but they’re trapped somewhere in the deepest recesses of your mind. So, what do you do about it? Do you plan ahead, premeditating your contributions? Do you turn to artificial intelligence? Do you defer to someone else, hoping that you can find inspiration from another source? Here’s the solution: understand creativity.
The ability to create is a critical part of the human experience. But what is it exactly? Through ideas, designs, plans, scripts, artwork, and beyond, creativity is all around us. It’s a buzzword that 1,600 CEOs across 33 industries and 60 countries ranked as the number-one attribute that they’re looking for in their incoming workforce, according to a 2016 IBM study, beating discipline, integrity, and intelligence. However, in a study by Adobe in 2016, out of 5,000 people, only 41 percent described themselves as “creative.”
There is a disconnect between what creativity is and how everyone can utilize it. This leaves us with myths to debunk and actionable steps to implement.
Creativity Myth #1: Art Equals Creativity
One of the biggest misconceptions about creativity is the swapping and substituting of terms to encompass all art or all creativity. At its root, creativity is creating. It’s making something, anything! While you can say that all art is creative, all creativity doesn’t have to be art.
For junior Jess Brown, redefining creativity allowed her to open up to new possibilities. “Creativity doesn't have to be only painting, writing poetry, or anything like that. You're able to use creativity in so many different aspects of your life that it's beneficial for everyone to tap into.”
This open expression can be broken down into a few steps—(1) analysis, (2) creation, and (3) execution:
- Everything we view, hear, read, and sense is considered an input, which we then analyze.
- By analyzing inputs, you can then create. At this stage, it’s more like drafting—coming up with the outline before writing the whole article.
- Then, execution can happen, and at this point, you are officially making something.
According to Communication faculty Cory Kerr, “Creativity is living your life in a specific way that helps you be more receptive to inspiration and input and ideas and gives you the skills and abilities to be able to challenge those ideas, remix those ideas, and then execute them in interesting, entertaining, important, informative ways.”
Brother Kerr teaches a course in the Communication department titled “Intentional Creativity.” The seven-week course introduces students to the analysis and creation stages of creativity. The curriculum tackles topics of failure, comparison, meditation and mindfulness practices, and time management, and it sets students up with the skills to execute their ideas and continue being creative after the conclusion of the class.
Kerr emphasizes to students that having individual thoughts is being creative. “Now that we can create robots, we don't need people to be robots. The real key to success is being able to think creatively, think logically, think reasonably, think intelligently, and think critically.” Creativity is focused more on independence and innovation than finding an artistic medium for execution.
Creativity Myth #2: I Don’t Have Time to Be Creative
“I feel like so many times people are like, well, I have this creative thing that I love, but I need a real job, or I want to do something that's more important with my time and my life … but God created us to be creative beings,” says Brown.
If you’re waiting for elusive and mythical “extra” time in your future to start being creative, you’ll never get the chance. Like any skill, creativity is honed and developed through prioritization, focus, and dedication.
Dedicating small, consistent amounts of time to clearing your headspace, analyzing inputs, and working on activities with no long-term goals, like doodling or freewriting, will tone and stretch your creative muscles more than banking thoughts for a rainy day ever can.
“Creativity is something that I can control to a certain extent. I can create the space, the time, the place, the kind of biosphere, if you like, between my ears, my disposition, removing kind of things that might otherwise entangle these creative thoughts or ideas,” says Communication faculty Christian Mawlam.
Blocking out a space that allows for “daydreaming, experimentation, play, inspiration, creativity, and being in tune with the Holy Ghost,” as Kerr suggests, is less of a demand than worrying about painting the next Mona Lisa or writing the next great work of American fiction. Implementing your creative skills in any setting will become easier once you have practiced them in a controlled setting.
Creativity Myth #3: I Don’t Need Creativity
Before developing the course, Kerr realized that most students did not have the habits needed to excel. “One of the values of higher education in general is confronting students with nuance, with ambiguity, with questions, questioning their assumptions so that they can create anew how they view the world. Anytime there's a class that offers that room for creation within the assignment or within the goal of the class, we’re able to do that,” says Kerr.
Creativity is a celestial predisposition. God is a creative being and has given His children ways to be the same. It’s not an innate disposition that some people have and others do not. It’s a learned skill that everyone needs.
In his October 2008 general conference address, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before . . . The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. . . . As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.”
Becoming creative will not happen overnight. Like all skills, creativity will be developed through consistent, quality work.
While it can’t guarantee you’ll never be at a loss for words when put on the spot, experience a mental block, or suffer from a lack of inspiration, it will build up your most valuable skill to discover, design, and make—your creativity.
Ways to Practice Creativity:
- Set aside electronics in settings that you might instinctively use them (eating, walking, waiting in lines, using the bathroom)
- Spend an hour researching something you’ve always been curious about
- Do a breathing exercise for 5 minutes
- Journal or freewrite for 10 minutes
- Go for a silent walk for 10 minutes
- Look up your favorite piece of art and find the root inspiration for it
- Draw something from 5 feet away, 10 feet away, and 20 feet away